Alliance Quest Miniboss and Sentinel Refresh - April 2018 - Discussion Thread [Updated April 13]

Summoners,

We've just announced a small refresh of Alliance Quests that will start April 2nd. This will include new Minibosses, and a farewell to our Symbioid friends!

Read all about it, then ask your questions!

UPDATE:
We've just posted an update in regards to your feedback on Alliance Quests. This post includes some adjustments to Sentinels and Alliance Quests that will be coming with the next series (Starting April 18th). Take a look right here: http://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/62626/upcoming-adjustments-to-alliance-quests-april-18th-2018

Comments

Speeds80

you Know what, the analysis charges are just a joke, I have to bait their l1 as their l2 is not reliably Evadable, and to bait the l1 I have to drive up their charges, then if they decide not to l1 (45 seconds of baiting today no l1, backed into a corner, analysis charges over 30 and I’m screwed at this stage. It’s like when the early guys in arena are double your Pi and decide to do all or nothing, it becomes luck whether you can actually win the fight. kabam we like skill based gaming, when it’s luck whether you can actually win the match because they won’t bait and then they have unblockables, this is the most frustrating mechanic in the game and a terrible idea to make the most common fight in our daily routine, this company is the most unliked company I have ever dealt with, this game just keeps going further and further downhill with every update. Skill is no longer the issue, it’s like you keep missing the part about making a fun game as the main focus of your business model,

General_Vis

When do the unblockable specials kick in? I’ve never noticed one yet.

Herk_Derpson

At 40 analysis charges. At 20, effects like debuffs trigger through blocks. Depends on your playstyle and governed a lot by luck. As said above, if they don't take the bait you end up triggering charges. If you decide to play up in their face and go for parries into combos, you have to try and use unnatural combos like LMLM, MLM, etc. or risk racking up too many charges. It seems like the top rated members in the alliances I'm friendly with are doing just fine while the bottom 20 or so are riding the struggle bus. If you are one of the bosses of your alliance, you might not notice a huge change in difficulty because you are beating them before they rack up too many charges. Our guys with multiple r4 5*s (in other words, our spenders) are breezing through while our members and lower rated guys (our free players who are just very active and above average skill for their PI) are having an insanely hard time clearing lanes they've been assigned for months.

MsDomino

It was a clever change, there are no sentinels in map 6, therefore the whales who do the loudest talking with their wallets are largely unaffected and the ‘bigger’ YouTubers aren’t talking about it either.

I can’t explain the apathy that there appears to be within the alliance since the sentinel introduction. Activity is dropping off and AQ is taking longer and longer to complete because everyone hates this change. There isn’t really an answer we can find, can’t drop because lower maps have a higher % of sentinels and who wants to grind 24/7 for the funds to run map 6 all week? We are a strong team, can solo tier 1 AW boss fights..and even we are demoralised by this change.

Zapp

Same here. People who walk through NCs and MODOKs and everything that is hard are getting wrecked by Sentinels. How can you say they are not harder? They are a lot harder. At least have the decency to say “hey we decided that AQ is to easy, made it harder”. But this smoke and mirrors communication is really annoying.

Herk_Derpson

@GroundedWisdom after reading the top page of your comments, it seems you spend a lot of time on these forums defending Kabam and telling others their opinions are invalid and they are whiny crybabies. There are 28 pages *edit: in this thread*, I've read through many of them, and boy does it seem like you're a little outnumbered. Not trying to call you out, but just keep in mind, there are many different experiences of this game and based on the response to this AQ update, there are clearly a lot of negative ones as a result. For every one of the folks mad enough to come rage on here I'm willing to bet there are 4 behind them just saying screw it, uninstall. I'm not only not enjoying AQ atm, I'm also watching the potential unravelling of an alliance I have worked very hard to recruit for and get to 10m from 6 in the last 4 months. Watching the work I put in unravel, and good friends I have made lose interest in the game is pretty frustrating above and beyond the frustration involved with the actual AQ. Even if you are happy with the changes, just remember more people play this game than just you, and their experiences and opinions are as worthy of your respect as yours are of mine. Good day day to you SIRRRRRR

OnlyOneAboveAll

THE SENTINELS ARE NOT THAT HARD TO FIGHT. THEY CAUSE BARELY ANY BLOCK DAMAGE. I USE MY SAME TEAM. STORM, CAPTAIN MARVEL AND HULK. THEY DESTROY THEM ALL. NOT TOO MENTION IF YOU PURPOSLY GET HIT BY A FIRST SPECIAL IF YOU HAVE WILLPOWER THEN YOU WILL REGEN THAT HEALTH BACK PLUS SOME. THEIR FIRST SPECIAL DOESNT CAUSE THAT MUCH DAMAGE. YOU CAN ALSO BLOCK THEIR SECOND SPECIAL AND IT DOESN'T CAUSE THAT MUCH DAMAGE EITHER. SO STOP COMPLAINING. JUST HAVE TO GET USED TO THEM. MY ONLY ISSUE IS STILL LEARNING TO INTERCEPT THEM. BUT WITH ENOUGH PRACTICE THEY WILL BE NO PROBLEM. KABAM ALSO GAVE US MANY DAYS OF FREE HALLS OF HEALING WHICH IF YOU DID THEM ALL, YOU SHOULD HAVE ENOUGH RESOURCES TO GET BY FOR A WHILE. THANKS KABAM FOR THE CHANGE ALTHOUGH I SAW THE SENTINAL CHANGE COMING LONG BEFORE YOU ANNOUNCED IT LOL.

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Stellar

Kabam Miike wrote: »

\

Ascoop24 wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

420sam wrote: »

So, you are making it more difficult yet not adjusting anything like rewards or even glory? Can I ask why? How does this benefit the players?

As we said in that post, we are working on a full refresh. We are not at a place or time where we can increase the rewards or fully refresh the mode right now.

If you aren't at a place or time to refresh the rewards then you shouldn't be at a place or time to refresh the difficulty. One should not go without the other. This is a great example of pure laziness

But how are you so sure that the difficulty has gotten worse?

Granted, Bleed and Poison champions may not be as effective in Alliance Quests as they were before, but Sentinels melt at the power of a Armor Break Champion, and a lot of the new Mini-Bosses have very common counters!

How can we so sure ?

Because we tested it and sentinelles are fare more difficult than symbioïdes ! that's why !
Sentinels have more powerful armor, probably more hit points, they gain capacity while they analyse the fight and can even use their capacities on you when you block their attack !
They are immune to bleed and poison, which none of the symbioïdes were.
Some sentinel gets far more power than usual, even without node bonus and even if you parry.
You want to evade or use dexterity ? that make them more powerful !

And with all that you dare ask how we can be so sure ?

Do you even play this game ? Do you even test difficulties before releasing updates ?

Come on, sentinels are way to hard with out using potions and/or revives ! is it a strategy of kabam to force summoners to use or even buy potions and units ? If so it's pathetic.

You could at least try to modify the nodes's bonus in order to give us a slight chance.

GroundedWisdom

Herk_Derpson wrote: »

@GroundedWisdom after reading the top page of your comments, it seems you spend a lot of time on these forums defending Kabam and telling others their opinions are invalid and they are whiny crybabies. There are 28 pages *edit: in this thread*, I've read through many of them, and boy does it seem like you're a little outnumbered. Not trying to call you out, but just keep in mind, there are many different experiences of this game and based on the response to this AQ update, there are clearly a lot of negative ones as a result. For every one of the folks mad enough to come rage on here I'm willing to bet there are 4 behind them just saying screw it, uninstall. I'm not only not enjoying AQ atm, I'm also watching the potential unravelling of an alliance I have worked very hard to recruit for and get to 10m from 6 in the last 4 months. Watching the work I put in unravel, and good friends I have made lose interest in the game is pretty frustrating above and beyond the frustration involved with the actual AQ. Even if you are happy with the changes, just remember more people play this game than just you, and their experiences and opinions are as worthy of your respect as yours are of mine. Good day day to you SIRRRRRR

I've never called anyone whiny crybabies. When the topic of fraudulently asking for refunds comes up, I feel inclined to mention it's not advisable. The Champs were not rendered useless. Those Champs are not specifically made, sold, advertised, or intended for AQ. Who people Rank and for what reason is entirely up to them.
As for the changes, this is par for the course with anything that is introduced that people have to adjust to. The amount of times people allegedly quit the game, I lost count. I am not stopping anyone from expressing their concerns. I've said I have no issues with it, and so have others. I also stated that the subject was being exaggerated, and that opinion still stands. It's a bit much, really. The argument of the Rewards is not really holding with me because there would still be complaints even if they were slightly increased. AQ is not a permanent fixture of the game. It's not Storymode or ROL. It will change. Quite honestly, it's going to take work to adjust to the Sentinels. There may be work on tweaking them or toning them down, or it may be something we need to adjust to. Either way, we will survive. What really perplexes me is the whole delitany that never ceases to pour forth whenever something changes in this game. It's their product, their choice of direction. There's a difference between giving feedback and threatening to quit if we don't get what we want. One is constructive. The other is a tantrum.

Herk_Derpson

@GroundedWisdom

Absolutely, but I'm merely pointing out that others may be having a different experience than you are. I haven't threatened to quit since 12.0 and I wasn't alone in that. Solid points though, especially on rewards I'm also not of the opinion that increasing them fixes the issues people are having. The issue for me is that what was once the easy side of the Alliance imo, aq, is now far more difficult and time consuming, even understanding the abilities of the sentinals and specifically playing around with different fighting styles and champs. I've had good fights and bad fights with them and recognize that with time I would eventually have and EASIER time if not as easy as before. You're right, this is their game and it's their prerogative to make whatever changes they want. I just see these changes disrupting the community and my own enjoyment of this game and find that concerning. To each their own though, I totally get where you are coming from, just givin ya a hard time lol

GroundedWisdom

Herk_Derpson wrote: »

@GroundedWisdom

Absolutely, but I'm merely pointing out that others may be having a different experience than you are. I haven't threatened to quit since 12.0 and I wasn't alone in that. Solid points though, especially on rewards I'm also not of the opinion that increasing them fixes the issues people are having. The issue for me is that what was once the easy side of the Alliance imo, aq, is now far more difficult and time consuming, even understanding the abilities of the sentinals and specifically playing around with different fighting styles and champs. I've had good fights and bad fights with them and recognize that with time I would eventually have and EASIER time if not as easy as before. You're right, this is their game and it's their prerogative to make whatever changes they want. I just see these changes disrupting the community and my own enjoyment of this game and find that concerning. To each their own though, I totally get where you are coming from, just givin ya a hard time lol

To be clear, I wasn't talking about you specifically. Just the general air.

Herk_Derpson

Totally. Digital handshake, I respectfully agree to disagree.

Stellar

If you compare QA 5 to uncollected Quests, you will see that the uncollected quest of the Mutant was far easier !

We had only 2 sentinels to battle before going to the boss. Here we have 4 or more sentinel per path before going to the mini-boss and that for each mini boss

You said that sentinels are sensitive to class relationship and armor breaking but not all summoners are able to get that kind of champion in QA while doing the Event Quest and battling in alliance war !

The way i see it, QA will become less and less attractive for players who can't afford to get 16 top champions at the same time for those 3 events and will choose to sacrifice QA as AW are far more interresting

Repto23

@Kabam Miike Care to comment as to why the Senteniels in AQ still gain charges and activate their abilities after either Medusa's armor shatter or Nebula having 10+ electro charges. Which they didn't in the last event quest or if you duel a players Senteniel

Vincew80

I don’t plant to quit (yet) in hopes they’ll start listening to customers. However, I won’t spend another dime & gave them the App Store rating they’ve earned. I’d encourage anyone else that’s not pleased to let them know through those means, as that’s all that will really get their attention.

nickkala_648kalanda

Yeah changes is always good, but as sentinels are hard opponents then simbiods and quest become more harder, also needs recourse to finish it, probably it's time to make some changes in rewards to, I mean make them better.

DukeZman

Ok having now tested the AQ changes in Map 5, there’s no question things are harder, especially the Sentinels...especially the Mystic ones. The mystic Sentinels need a nerf on their power gain bad. And Sentinels in general need their sig abilities turned off.
There’s no way you can sit there and say with a straight face that replacing generally easy champs (symbiods) with a champ with block penetration and unblockable specials plus other random abilities doesn’t make this quest significantly more difficult. I don’t even care that they don’t bleed or poison. It’s their plethora of other crazy abilities.
@Kabam Miike you said your stated goal was just to shake things up without increasing difficulty and that’s simply not been the case. Something needs to be done to bring the difficulty of the Sentinels more in line with what we had.

DukeZman

DukeZman wrote: »

Ok having now tested the AQ changes in Map 5, there’s no question things are harder, especially the Sentinels...especially the Mystic ones. The mystic Sentinels need a nerf on their power gain bad. And Sentinels in general need their sig abilities turned off.
There’s no way you can sit there and say with a straight face that replacing generally easy champs (symbiods) with a champ with block penetration and unblockable specials plus other random abilities doesn’t make this quest significantly more difficult. I don’t even care that they don’t bleed or poison. It’s their plethora of other crazy abilities.
@Kabam Miike you said your stated goal was just to shake things up without increasing difficulty and that’s simply not been the case. Something needs to be done to bring the difficulty of the Sentinels more in line with what we had.

It seems seriously unbalanced to make Sentinels now the hardest fight on the map.

AgentCoulson777

Nomercy_4_you wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

\

Ascoop24 wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

420sam wrote: »

So, you are making it more difficult yet not adjusting anything like rewards or even glory? Can I ask why? How does this benefit the players?

As we said in that post, we are working on a full refresh. We are not at a place or time where we can increase the rewards or fully refresh the mode right now.

If you aren't at a place or time to refresh the rewards then you shouldn't be at a place or time to refresh the difficulty. One should not go without the other. This is a great example of pure laziness

But how are you so sure that the difficulty has gotten worse?

Granted, Bleed and Poison champions may not be as effective in Alliance Quests as they were before, but Sentinels melt at the power of a Armor Break Champion, and a lot of the new Mini-Bosses have very common counters!

Buff rewards then do some change’s,at this time you are doing nothing

I would agree with the armor break except there are sentinels that have purify and then they shrugg off everything. That is way more difficult...

unknown

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ChefSkallywag

No, they are only allowed one response per 100 warning

Gusaphus

Too many sentinels...every other fight is a sentinel. Would be better to add some of the other new champs in. It’s more difficult, but it isn’t more fun

D14rock

Has anybody even mentioned the fact that kabam clearly stated that they didn't want AQ to be the focus anymore and they wanted AW to be the game mode everyone focused towards for the better rewards. Why then am I spending more pots in each of the first 3 days of AQ than I ever do in AW, even against a really good defense?.... it can't be just because I'm not used to sentinels.. i have fought plenty of them in master and uncollected eq on 2 different a count and they near as bad the AQ ones.. you tell us to use class advantage to bear them.. exactly what skill champ can i use against science sentinel on heal block path? Or right there as garnet any bleed immune skill Champs... and the only science champ I can use against the mystic sentinel on that same path is LC.... give me a break?! Of course there are other bleed immune champs, but how many of them have strong armor break to counter not being able to have a class advantage? Ultron has armore break.. used him.. he sucks too..So you guys had to go ahead and rush this new map out even though it wasn't ready or even the end of the season yet and just lazily switched syms out for a sentinel of the same class when they don't even fit with a path..

Spurgeon14

DukeZman wrote: »

DukeZman wrote: »

Ok having now tested the AQ changes in Map 5, there’s no question things are harder, especially the Sentinels...especially the Mystic ones. The mystic Sentinels need a nerf on their power gain bad. And Sentinels in general need their sig abilities turned off.
There’s no way you can sit there and say with a straight face that replacing generally easy champs (symbiods) with a champ with block penetration and unblockable specials plus other random abilities doesn’t make this quest significantly more difficult. I don’t even care that they don’t bleed or poison. It’s their plethora of other crazy abilities.
@Kabam Miike you said your stated goal was just to shake things up without increasing difficulty and that’s simply not been the case. Something needs to be done to bring the difficulty of the Sentinels more in line with what we had.

It seems seriously unbalanced to make Sentinels now the hardest fight on the map.

I've thought the same thing! They are harder than Dormammu and you have to fight them like 10 times an AQ quest and Dormammu only once and you get a ton more points for him. Lol

JuanZq

I have read some comments and a lot of people agree this change of making so hard AQ is making some Alliances are breaking, including mine.
AQ is now far more difficult and time consuming than ever.
And why did you increase the difficulty if you didnt increase rewards too?, that would help to understand this changes.
If Kabam don't want people play AQ, should tell that and disable AQ. So people can focus on Wars or missions.
AQ was intented to give us resources to increase the level of your team for wars or missions.
But now you have to use more resources just to finish AQ. Kabam have to get better the game not worse.
People in my alliance are just leaving the game and the ones that stay are frustated. Can't even finish AQ and worse can't even start a war because people leaves and we haven't enough resources.

Finally: I think Kaban should go back and start missions of healing and gold because we lack of both.

caseyryback

no sentinels pls.

Jamag

Finally this game has sucked the life out of me and makes me want to quit. The sheer increase in difficulty is overwhelming and don’t think I’ve ever had to use as much potions ever in Aq so a big hand clap to whoever thought of this latest change. The game just isn’t fun for me now and actually hate thought of doing Aq. Sure we need time to adapt but come on this is crazy, I’ve have seriously struggled this week and if keeps up will call it quits. I complete uncollected every month, cleared act 5 etc and seriously struggle with a sentinel, although I do expect a few bugs are at work too. Just my feedback Kabam but it’s destroying the game for me

CurtisLow

@Kabam Miike this outcry is worse than the changes from last year. I came back to see what people were saying and it’s the same thing being said in my alliance. We were joking about going back to map 1 since map 5 is on the edge of impossible. I don’t care if sentinels are here to stay. I don’t care if they’re immune to bleed, poison and incinerate. That makes sense. The other buffs make them impossible to fight. That makes no sense.